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Do you find yourself needing cellular?

  • Yes

    Votes: 109 49.5%
  • No

    Votes: 111 50.5%

  • Total voters
    220
I tether from my iPhone. The iPhone isn't cheap, and neither are the phone plans to go along with it. My plan allows me to tether at no extra charge. I'm already paying these premiums; maximizing it with the seamless tethering between iOS devices is just being cost-effective. Why pay for data for an iPad and pay the premium for the cellular model when I've already paid for a high-end phone and its own data?

This is what I have been thinking. Also, by tethering to my iPhone I can regulate how much I use it and will keep me from using too much data. I really wanted a cellular iPad but I really don't want to pay for it.
 
I don't have an iPad but if I did, I can't imagine a scenario where I would need cellular. I would most likely be using it at home or work 95% of the time so WiFi is covered. In the event that I was somewhere where there wasn't WiFi, I have my cell phone which I can use to check email and browse the internet. The only thing Id be sacrificing is the large screen, but a large screen isn't worth paying an extra $130 upfront cost plus $20 or so a month for a data plan
 
So true.

For me, having cellular on the iPad serves an extra purpose. I have AT&T postpaid for the phone and Verizon prepaid for the iPad. Using two different providers pretty much means there's coverage wherever I go. The Verizon iPad has actually saved us quite a few times when the outdated maps on our GPS have gotten us lost in the boonies where AT&T has no signal.

Same, but with Verizon on my phone and AT&T on the iPad. Likely never out of good coverage one way or another.
 
Not at all for me. I have unlimited 4G data on my iPhone plan which includes free tethering, so I just personal hotspot and link to my ipad
 
Yes, I do indeed!
I use my iPad quite a lot while travelling, and with a twin simcard to the one in my iPhone I can easily get online from anywhere without tethering. :)
 
If you don't use your iPad out of the house, then you don't need Cellular model.

If you do take it out of the house, it is absolutely a must. Tethering is completely out of the question for daily use because it kills your phone's battery life (which is probably more important) and the sheer inconvenience of it all.

Not having accurate location services with the GPS built in is also a drawback.
 
Do you find yourself needing cellular?

No need for cellular. Wifi model all the way. iPad stays home most of the time. When I take it out I tether to my 5S. I have a 10gb mobile share plan. Not worried about battery life. I have a charger in my office. Charger in my house. Charger in my car. Charger in my kitchen. I charge during the day whenever I get a chance. 20-30 mins of charging during the day makes a huge difference and allows me to finish my day fine with the battery life. Also when I tether I don't use it for hours. Mostly minutes and what not.
 
Wifi version for me. When I am traveling I use my iPhone's mobile hot spot for my iPad. In the car my iPhone is in a powered cradle connected to my stereo system. In the hotel room my iPhone is connected to the charger, so battery is never a worry for me when tethering.

Using wifi makes sense because it costs me nothing extra with my AT&T shared plan. If I was to get a cellular iPad, I would have to pay extra for that model, plus another $10/mo to have it on my mobile share plan.
 
I have a cellular iPad Mini on Verizon, iPhone 5S is on Tmobile. It's useful for those times when traveling in areas where Tmobile doesn't have LTE. Plus it was only an extra $10 to add it to my Verizon account and it can be turned on or off whenever I want. No contract.
 
I tether from my phone. I travel about 1 week per month. While a cell model would be more convenient, it's no big deal to tether it and wasn't worth the extra cost. We are on a family data plan, so the data would all be coming from the same place.

On the other hand, I bought my wife and my mom iPads with cellular capability. It was just easier to have them be able to access data from anywhere than trying to get them to tether when to their phones.
 
If I could tether from my phone... I'd do that. I have unlimited from AT&T so that's a no go. We use our iPads on the go all the time so my iPad mini on verizon is a hot spot for our iPads.
 
I hardly take my ipad out of the house. If i do then I tether my phone or use free wifi. I like the fact that data on the ipad is prepaid with no contract. I don't think paying an extra $130 plus tax for cellular is worth it.
 
Living in Japan means we get unlimited data super cheap. It's crazy to buy a cellular version of an iPad when you can just tether it to an iphone 5 or 5c/s via 4G speeds. It works brilliantly and it's totally free for two years.
 
My current iPad is wifi only but when I get something new it will probably have cellular support. The only reason being is that when you need it during certain situations you simply need it. I doubt I'd even use it that much but like I said, when ya gotta have it ya gotta have it. I also like how you can get cheap plans without breaking the bank.
 
Hells yeah, use it all day every day. I could tether if I wanted too, but the experience of an always online iPad with no messing is a much better experience. You can use it essentially like a phone, quick browse/email instantaneously, without the faff of setting up tethering and killing your phone battery. Then again, with work I'm away from wifi for 10 hours a day, if I was solely in an office environment maybe I'd think different.

Data sims cost peanuts in the UK, £10 for 3gb 3 month sim. 3gb is plenty purely for browsing, and if do want to stream anything data heavy I've unlimited tethering on my phone.
 
If I could tether from my phone... I'd do that. I have unlimited from AT&T so that's a no go.
Same boat here. I would LOVE to be able to tether from my iPhone, but I too have the old unlimited data plan from AT&T. I really wish there was a less expensive option.
 
When i was first in the market for an iPad i considered the 3g model because i figured that there would be times where it would be great to have while traveling. Since you could pay month to month it was a great feature.

however, i couldn't justify the increased price between the wifi and the 3g. i just don't travel enough to places w/ no wifi to make it worth it to me.

my parents however got the 3g and have been really happy with it. they travel all the time now that they're retired and they love that option.

for me, i just unlocked my phone so i can turn on tether whenever i really need to have a data connection.

the point being, it really is a widely variable choice for people. hell, i don't even use the data plan on my phone very often as i have wifi pretty much everywhere i go...
 
I find myself waffling on whether I'll buy a cellular version or not. I currently have a wifi version and there have been very few times where I thought I needed cellular. Although I have a verizon plan with a corporate discount so it would be very cheap for me to add an iPad to my account.
 
Although I usually use my iPad at home, there have been a few times where TIme Warner Cable internet has not worked. It actually happened this weekend. But $629 for a 16GB? Rather have more storage.
 
I'm one of those who got the unlimited AT&T data plan with the first ipad. I never let it lapse and transferred it to my ipad mini. I use wifi at home of course...but I do use cellular quite often when I commute to work by train every day. It really comes in handy. In fact, I got rid of my smartphone plan entirely. I make and receive calls thru my ipad mini and do all my web surfing on it. I save over $100 a month. Don't miss my phone plan at all.

More and more cities around the world are offering free wifi, but oddly enough, NYC isn't one of them. Until they do, I'm keeping my unlimited data plan.
 
The few times i needed cellular, i used my iPhone to setup a wifi hotspot. Unless you live somewhere, where they rip you off and charge you for tethering, it is not worth it imo.
 
My wifi iPad 3 is used 95% at home so I don't need to pay extra for cellular.

On the rare occasion that I do take it out of the house to lets say visit family, they will have wifi access that I can tag onto and if not I have unlimited tethering with my iPhone so use that to hotspot, makes so much sense.

If I get the Air, that too will be wifi.
 
I rarely have my iPad outside of my home & when I do, I get free tethering through my iPhone.

Ditto.

Why pay an extra $10/month to get my iPad access to the same shared data that I can use via a WiFi hotspot at no extra cost?

The downsides are 1) increased battery usage on my iPhone5S while the hotspot is enabled and 2) No GPS on the iPad... but I already my iPhone for that.
 
Much as Yegon said. ^_^ I'm out and about quite a bit, as one of my passions is wildlife photography. Being able to simply whip out the iPad and check the current satellite and radar weather imagery is fantastically convenient; similarly on the bus or train, for a quick email/LJ/twitter check.
 
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